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Spectacularly executed and ambitious, this double-CD marks a logical plateau for Spock's Beard: the full-blown concept album. While there's no denying the band's central irony--they make what is essentially '70s retro-prog--it's executed by founder and vocalist Neal Morse and company (brother Alan on guitars, bassist Dave Meros, Ryo Okumoto on keyboards, drummer Nick D'Virgilio) with compelling zeal and wide-eyed wonder. There's ever-so-brief nods to thrash metal and industrial abrasiveness, but the touchstones remain the glorious vocal harmonies of Yes and Kansas, the moody pomp of early Genesis, and the machine-gun arpeggios and jagged time-shifts of King Crimson. The band has the good sense to mock the genre's inherent excesses (and itself) on "Ladies and Gentleman, Mister Roy Okumoto on the Keyboards," even as Okumoto resurrects Keith Emerson's late-'60s torture-the-Hammond routine. If the story (albino misfit Snow finds corruption in the big city, eventually becomes the Messiah, ultimately prefers personal redemption) cribs motifs off everything from
Tommy to
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, its message of renewed hope and innocence reclaimed can seem mighty appealing, especially after decades of punk cynicism and postmodern navel gazing. Hold those lighters high!
--Jerry McCulley
Album Details
Spock's Beard's 2002 double album Snow, a monumental work with 26 songs & more than 115 (!!) minutes of playing time. Snow is certainly not for the superficial, musical fast-food loving fan. However, for fans of passionately played, diversely arranged, orchestrated rock, this album will open up a world into which one can happily plunge and, for almost two hours, leave the horrors of today's one-dimensional music landscape far, far behind. So it's no wonder that drummer legend Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) spoke about Snow so enthusiastically in the July 2002 edition of the French Rock Hard magazine, 'I think that Spock's Beard's seven year career has been continuously developing & leading up to this album. Snow is an exemplary concept album in the tradition of The Who's Tommy or Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Metal Blade Records. Two CD set packaged with a 28 page full color
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